Through Thick And Thin
by ThePearlshippingMiester
Summary: Join Dawn, and Ash as they survive a World War together, fighting for survival. Can they really survive? Or will they die trying?
1. New Life New Friends

**Hai guys! How are you all doing? Yes, yes I know, another new fic -.-" This is simply a short 3-4 parter, in honor of Patriot's Day(the anniversary of 9/11) And I'm aware that I'm 3 days late XD But yeah, school is total hell this year .3. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the fic! It's inspired by an amazing movie called Barefoot Gen, it's AMAZING! But if you don't sit well w/ blood, than I don't think it's for you ^^' This fic is kinda like what happened at Hiroshima in World War II. I hope you enjoy :D**

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_-Narrative-_

_Dawn(8 ½) and her mother Johanna(39) have just moved to Kanto upon Johanna receiving a job opportunity in the Contest Business. However, a World War is taking place between Kanto, Kalos, Johto, and Hoenn. Kanto and Johto are allies, whereas Kalos and Hoenn are allies. _

"Wow Mommy! Look at how big the house is!" Dawn yelled. When her mother was given a job opportunity in Kanto, she also got the opportunity of receiving an average normal house, rather than the apartment she had back in Sinnoh.

"That's right sweetie, it's much bigger than the apartment, hm? Pallet Town sure is a nice place to live." Her mother replied. "Why don't you meet some of the neighbors, huh?" She suggested.

"Ok!" Dawn yelled. She ran out of the house, only to see a large neighborhood, made up of five or so houses. She went to the farthest house at the end of the street, and proceeded to knock on the door, multiple times. She was greeted by a middle aged woman opening the door. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and gorgeous green eyes. She was wearing a blue polka-dot dress, and an apron, with white knee socks, and no shoes.

"Hi! You must be the new neighbor, is it…Danielle?" She asked.

"Nuh-uh, I'm Dawn!" The blunette chirped.

"Oh, Dawn is it? What a beautiful name sweetie! My name's Harriett! Welcome t- AAAAAACK!" Harriett was cut off by a loud beeping sound. "MY COOKIES ARE BURNING!" She yelled. Dawn heard a few thumps, and bangs inside the house, and could it be…A goat?

"Uhh, bye Miss!" Dawn called. She went to the next house over. The next house over had a girl about Dawn's age named Kaitlin, and a boy a few years older than Dawn named Jonathan. The third house belonged to Dawn and her mother, so she skipped past that one. The fourth house had an old woman named Mathilde, and what looked like her granddaughter, maybe 16 years old? But her name was Marié. Then Dawn approached the last house. She knocked on the door, and a little boy opened it.

"Who are you?" He asked. He had dark raven hair, and beautiful brown eyes. He also had small "z's" under his eyes. He was wearing a dark grey T-Shirt, with blue jeans, and white socks.

"I'm Dawn! I live waaaaay over there!" Dawn said. She pointed to the third house on the street, and waved her hands for emphasis.

"Wow, that's far! My name's Ash!" Said the boy. "I live right here!" He finished, pointing to the ground beneath his feet. At that point, his mother came and asked what he was doing.

"Oh, you must be our new neighbor! I'm Delia, I'm so happy to meet you!" She said with a smile. She had brown eyes, just like Ash, and brown hair. She wore a pale yellow shirt, with a pink full-sleeved sweater overtop, accompanied with some blue jeans, and a striped apron. "I was just baking some cookies, so if you'd like to join us, we'd be happy to have you over!"

Dawn was contemplating the possibilities. She did like cookies, and making new friends is always nice. "Alright!" She exclaimed. She made her way inside the house, and towards the kitchen. It was small. It had a small tale, with four chairs, and a bowl of fruit in the center. The fridge was decorated with drawing, pictures, and assorted magnets. There weren't many decorations in the kitchen, but there was a silk plant hanging from above a cabinet.

"Ooohh…" Dawn sighed. She was brought out of her observations by the smell of chocolate chip cookies. She smiled, and rushed over to the table, taking the first seat she could. "Mmm, cookies!" She chirped. She took one of the cooled cookies, and popped it into her mouth. "Soooo good…" She sighed.

"My mom makes the best cookies you know! But I'm not sure my dad can make cookies as good as her…" Ash said. Dawn sweat dropped anime style, and ate another cookie.

"Where is you dad, Ash?" Dawn asked.

"He's in the military right now. He's head captain! How cool is that!" Ash replied.

"Wow! That's so cool! My mom said that my dad needed to take an emergency business trip. I think it's really important, because he's been gone for a few years now. Mom was really sad when he left, but she doesn't cry anymore. She said that he's taking the business trip to earn tons of money, and when he earns enough, he'll come back, and we'll all be happy together!" Dawn's eyes grew with wonder just thinking about her family coming together, and being happy. Unfortunately, Ash's mother caught what Dawn's mother was trying to hide, and her eyes fell. The poor girl's father had left them.

"Wow! That's incredible!" Ash yelled. He too was ignorant of what the lie actually meant. The two talked for what seemed like hours, when they heard a voice yell out from a megaphone outside.

"A HOENN PLANE HAS BEEN SIGHTED, EVERYONE IN YOUR SAFETY SHELTERS!" Dawn didn't know why the man was yelling this, she felt confused.

"Oh dear, Ash, Dawn, come on, we have to get to the shelter!" Delia yelled. She grabbed Ash and Dawn's hands, and hurried to a little shelter near the end of the neighborhood.

"Hey Mom, I bet you $5 it's a spy plane!" Ash giggled.

"Ash Tajiri Ketchum!" Delia scolded. "Don't make bets when an enemy plane could bomb us!"

"BOMB?!" Dawn yelled. Delia covered Dawn's mouth with her hand.

"Shhh!" She hissed. "If a scout were here, they could've heard you!"

"Sorry ma'am…" Dawn whispered.

"Sorry, she can be a bit strict. I'm used to it." Ash said, chuckling slightly. At that moment, the man with the megaphone was heard again.

"ALL CLEAR! YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR HOMES!" He yelled.

"Wait, where's Mom?" Dawn asked.

"She probably didn't know where the shelter was, and stayed home." Delia replied. "Don't worry, she's just fine."

"Hey Dawn, you should come over and play again sometime!" Ash suggested.

"Sure! Same time next week?" Dawn asked.

"Same time next week!" Ash waved, and walked into his house. Dawn was beginning to walk home herself, when she saw her mother running towards her.

"DAWN HIKARI BERLITZ, YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!" She yelled. When she came close enough, she didn't hit or scold Dawn. Instead, she hugged her. "I was so worried about you." She whispered.

"I'm sorry Mom…" Dawn replied. "You told me to meet the neighbors, so I did."

Johanna laughed. "Just please, tell me where you're going next time, OK?"

"Yes ma'am!" And with that, they walked home.

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**So? I hope you liked the first chapter :D Why don't you guys tell me what to write next, IBT, R2, IWIWF, Or this new fic, Through Thick And Thin? Alright, signing off! R+R PLEEZY-WEEZY!**

_**Zoha**_


	2. My Living Hell

**Me: Herro :3**

**Everyone: WHERE WERE YOU.**

**Me: I'm SOWWY. I was incredibly busy in the past 2 months or so, and this fic took a LONG time to write.**

**Everyone else: Yeah yeah…**

**Me: Well the next fic to come out, won't be in a while. The next one I'll publish will be the 1****st**** chappie of There She Is! , and the date I've set might be sometime in late November, to early December. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's very dramatic x3**

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Dawn's POV

It's been about six years since I moved to Pallet. It's been the same. The war continued even until now, but nothing serious happened. There have only been spy planes, but I've heard that there have been many bombings in other cities and regions alike. It's a real shame. But they've managed to avoid Pallet for a good six years, so I'm happy about that. Ash and I are both fourteen, but he's turning fifteen in a few weeks, whereas I'm turning fifteen in a good two months or so.

Today's a really well known Kanto celebration. It's like one of my mom's made up holidays, but she has about one each month. I think they're really fun, most of the time. Sometimes the holidays are really lame, like '_Clean Your Closet Day'_ or _'New Socks Day'_. But for the festival, we're going to float a boat down a local river for a festival this evening. We've done it before, and I can still remember the first time all my neighbors and the other members of the town all joined to celebrate.

_-Flashback-_

_ "Hey Ash, why does everyone celebrate this holiday? I don't get it…" I asked Ash. We were about 9 then, and we still didn't understand much about the war._

_ "It's the day when the first Kanto ship set sail, so we all get little boats from our parents, and then at night, we get to attach little lights to 'em, and then we float them down the river! You should see them all, they're real cool!" he explained. We were headed to a river near the edge of Pallet, where the festival usually took place. I got a really pretty pink-ish boat, with sparkles and angel wings, where Ash got a bright blue boat, w/ red polka-dots all around it._

_ "Does your boat have chicken pocks?" I asked. He fell over anime style, and explained that they were only a design. How was I supposed to know? I was nine! Well, anyways we headed over to the river to finally float our boats down the river. _

_ "Dawn, look." My mother said, pointing to a small crowd. "It's our neighbors. Why don't you and Ash go say 'hi' while and I go get some food?"_

_ "Ok! Can I have pasta? No wait, pizza!" I was going back and forth for a while, until Ash just dragged me off to the crowd._

_ "Hi guys!" Ash and I chorused. The neighbors all replied with waves and hugs. After all the greeting, Ash suggested we go play by the river. We had tons of fun splashing in the water, and testing our boats. Then it came time to set the boats adrift. _

_ I put my boat in the water before Ash, and tied the rope and lights to my boat early. The way we set the boats off, was by tying each one to the same rope, and once an announcer shot a flare gun (all the guns were shot at the same time around Kanto mind you. They all had some signal I think) the rope was pulled, and the boats would float away. There were many boats for Pallet that year, and they were all beautiful. At least I thought so. I saved a space for Ash to tie a boat next to mine, and we waited for the shot to be made._

_ Because I was new, I got to pull one end of the rope, along with one of the professionals. He showed me how to pull the rope correctly, and when to do it. Then the guy in charge of the flare gunshot the black instrument, signaling for me and the professional to pull the rope. I pulled the rope with the professional at the perfect time, and the boats glided gracefully down the river. My eyes practically lit up brighter than those boats when I saw what I did. The colors of the boats, mixed with the softness of the lights, and the reflections in the river, just made the most beautiful scene._

_ I was brought out of my thoughts with a happy little boy raising his arm up for a high five. I gladly accepted his offer, and we both cheered together._

_ "Wow Dawn! You did that! Thanks to you and that other tall guy, we sent the boats upstream from Pallet! You should feel really proud!" Ash cheered. I was blushing. Not out of love, no, just because he was praising me like that. _

_ "Gee Ash, that's very nice of you to say!" I said while rubbing the back of my head sheepishly. We just ate, and played after that. It was a night I wasn't going to forget. My first festival had definitely been my best so far._

_-End of Flashback-_

I was heading to school that day with Ash, and his mom was heading to work. My mom was staying home, and doing the chores. She didn't have work that day, because of an important planning meeting that was only for the heads of the contest company. I came downstairs in a pink T-Shirt and blue skinny jeans, with small loop earrings.

"Dawn sweetie, I want you to take our boat with you. I made it special, and I want you to have it with you." Mom said. She gave the boat to me, and I took it with open arms.

"Thanks Mom!" I said good-bye, and headed out with Ash by my side.

"Ugh. Another day at school." He groaned. He was wearing a white T-Shirt and plain blue jeans. Nothing too special about today either. I didn't _have_ to look super beautiful, considering it was a half day, and Ash didn't have to dress in an outfit with more effort.

"Boy, I hear 'ya." I replied.

We were at the bus stop, and it seemed normal. One of our classmates was there with us, same deal. But we thought we saw something small and black in the sky. It looked like a plane but… No plane has come to pallet for a long time now. We don't even have an airport. The closest airport is the one in Viridian, and the plane was traveling south of there.

"Ash, what is that?" I asked becoming quite nervous.

"Probably another spy plane. It's nothing, don't worry." He replied. He squeezed my arm to help me feel better. "No need to worry, right?"

What he didn't know, is that that plane was a Hoenn bomber. I didn't know that at the time either, so I just hoped that it was spy plane, and nothing more. But I was so wrong. It dropped the bomb. Moments before it hit the ground, I dropped a coin I was flipping around in my hand. Ash and I both bent down to pick up the coin, leaving the classmate standing by herself. She should've bent down with us.

The bomb exploded only moments after we dropped the coin. We picked up the coin and saw that half of her face was gone and charred. It was like looking at a nightmare. The bombs force pushed us back; all three of us. Everywhere you looked, there was death.

Everyone within closer range of the bombs endured a painful slow death. A woman was reduced to nothing but bones and little bits of bloody flesh stuck to them. Another man had his head fall off completely, killing him instantly. A mother was trying to protect her child from the blast, but to no avail. Both of them died in embers. A horrible one that I saw was a dog. The poor dog was trying to escape over a metal railing, but the bomb's blast melted them both. The dog was nothing more than ashes.

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I was woken by Ash shaking me violently. Was he…crying?

"Dawn!? " He shook. I felt awful. I got cut by a glass shard on my forehead, and I think I got knocked out by something metal hitting my head, but those were the only physical wounds I got. Ash was worse than me. There was blood dripping from his white t-shirt, he seemed to have a bruise on his arm, and he had a bad cut on his neck.

My eyes fluttered open, and I saw relief flood over Ash. Still weak from the KO, I slowly raised my hand up to Ash's neck. He winced in pain once I touched it, and I quickly drew back my hand. He shook his head. I stopped looking directly at him, and starting observing what was around me. My eyes shot open. There was fire. I tried to get up, but I fell.

"Hey! Take it easy!" Ash held me and brought me back to my feet. I was in shock. The fire was in the direction of my house. No wait- _our _houses. My mother was home…

"No…no…no… no, NO!" I shouted. I got up with the bit of strength I had and ran to my house. I was running so fast, and my head was throbbing, but I didn't care. My mom was in there, and we were supposed to float that boat down the river at the festival. Hey, maybe she's still alive! Yeah! Just keep that thought in your mind!

I was brought out of my thoughts with a horrifying sound drawing nearer to me. I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"What are they… zombies?" I asked myself. Ash caught up with me and protectively pushed me behind him.

"They must still be alive. We need to go." Ash said sternly. The creatures followed us slowly, and moaned while doing so. I felt horrified of the things, but I felt so sorry for them at the same time… But there were more pressing matters at hand. However, I couldn't shake the image of the poor, charred victims following behind Ash and I, their purple-blue skin, their clouded eyes, and their charred faces. I looked back at them for a moment, but quickly jerked my head back, out of sheer terror.

We continued running for what seemed like forever, until I spotted my mother, under a burning post, crying, and screaming for help. I froze, and ran my hands through my hair, tears spilling out of my eyes.

"No… I-it's not possible…" I stuttered. I fell to my knees, unable to anything, but watch. Ash was trying his hardest to life the heavy burning post, tears burning his eyes as well. My mom was like a second mother to him, and like me, he didn't want to lose her.

"DAWN!" Ash yelled. I took my hands out of my hair, and ran over to the two crying figures. I put my hands on the post, and exerted my force upward in attempt to life the post. I was trying, and trying until my hands were raw. I sat back on my knees grasping the post, and I swiveled my head, side to side. Most of the neighbors were in their houses, all dead. It broke my heart to see all of the people I was so close to die like this.

"Dawn... Ash… Stop." My mother whispered. I looked at her with eyes wide as the moon, and more hot tears began to run down my cheeks.

"WHY!? WE NEED TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE!" I yelled. My mother tilted her head slightly, and gave me a worried expression.

"Dawn… Listen to me, please." She begged.

"NO! WE ARE GETTING YOU OUT OF HERE!" I screamed, as more tears stained my face.

"If you stay here, you'll all die here too!" My mother was crying now. I stopped fighting, and broke down in front of her. Hearing her say these words, it felt like she was shoving a hot metal sword through my heart. "Ash… Take care of Dawn…" She whispered. Ash took this as a signal to take me far away, so I wouldn't be consumed by the flames, like mom.

He grabbed me by the waist, and carried me in the opposite direction of my mother, tears falling down his face while doing so.

"MOMMY!" I screamed. I saw her mouth the words, '_I love you'_ and close her eyes. That did it for me. I was crying non-stop. My throat was burning from the radiation, but I honestly didn't care. My mother was so much more important than my throat, but that didn't matter anymore. She was obviously dead, and I couldn't save her.

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Ash and I got to a shelter that was still intact, even after the bombing. He quickly opened the door, got inside, and collapsed, dropping me. He was still breathing but it was staggered. He weakly pulled up his head, and checked to see if I was ok. He sighed in relief, when he saw that I wasn't decorated with multiple scars and red streaks all around my body.

However, I did something very unexpected that made Ash jolt up in worry, and fear. I began to laugh. Laugh like there was no tomorrow. **(1)** He stared at me, his pupils' small, and eyes wide with worry. What was I doing? I just lost my mother, and I'm laughing?

"Dawn? Dawn! Are you ok?" He shook my shoulders, which caused my head to bend backwards. "Dawn!? Snap out of it!" He was shaking me violently, and I was still laughing. After a few minutes, I abruptly stopped laughing. I fell on the ground, cowering in a fetal position, whimpering. Ash chose to sit in silence this time around, his hair covering his eyes. All we could do was wait for the flames to stop.

It was silent for a very long time, and the only thing Ash and I could hear, was the sound of… _rain? _What? Why was it raining now? A _BOMB_ just went off. Rain wasn't expected after a bomb blast.

"Dawn, we need to check outside." Ash told me sweetly. He really did feel like a guardian angel for me right now. I would be dead if he wasn't there to take me away from that fire. But I would be with my mother… But she wouldn't want that. I nodded my head in agreement, and followed Ash outside to see the 'rain'.

I stuck my hand out to check if it was acid rain. Acid rain would make sense, right? A few drops of the rain hit my hand, but the rain wasn't normal. "Ash… It's black." I said to him.

"Don't drink it." He replied. "It's probably black from the radiation, I think…" I giggled at his pondering state. He looked so funny when he was thinking about something he didn't know for sure of. Like the time when we had that huge math test! He was at his desk with his hands in his hair, and he was stalling for time.

"Hey, I have an idea!" I chimed.

"Oh?" He replied.

"Maybe we should give some of the clean river water to those weird zombie things!" I suggested. I didn't like calling them zombies, but what else was I supposed to call them? I thought that water was what they needed, simply because they were just _burned_ to a crisp, and water always helped me with burns. Plus most of the creatures were mouthing '_Water… wa…ter….'_.

Ash nodded his head, and we began to go to a clean water reserve in our safety shelter. When we got there, there were two gallons of water, and about fifteen cups. The…_things_ were going to have to share, but they wouldn't mind, right? Ash and I both picked up a gallon of water each, and took a near even amount of cups in our free hands.

Once we reached the death site, we carefully filled up the cups, and distributed them among the somewhat-survivors.

"Here." I whispered. "Drink this." I handed a young woman, who looked about twenty-five a small glass of water. She was like the rest of them, charred and purple. She could hardly talk the poor thing. Once she took a sip of the water, she closed her eyes and fell to the ground. They all did.

"Ash?" I asked. "What's happening?"

""I don't know!" He replied. His voice was shaky, and in panic as he watched all of those people die before him.

"Is there something wrong with the water?" I suggested.

"Not sure… Lemme check." He said. He began to take a sip of the water, when I knocked the cup out of his hand.

"ASH!" I scolded. "IF THAT WATER WAS BAD, YOU'D BE DEAD TOO." My eyes began to water at the thought of my only loved one left, dying. I couldn't bear to imagine it.

"Oh…" He realized his mistake, and scratched his head, asking "What could be wrong then?"

My eyes brightened, and a sudden imaginary light bulb flickered on in my head. "Ash that's it!" I said to him. He replied with a puzzled expression, and rolled his hands, signaling for me to explain.

"Ash, the people drank the water, while still having pollutants in their systems! Not only that, but the blast might've messed up their organs, or something, and they could've not been able to drink the water properly!" My theory was proven correct, when I reluctantly picked up a dead body and opened their mouth, and pointed out the black soot, still left behind. Ash widened his eyes, and then smiled sweetly. He ruffled my hair, and said "Good job Dawn. I wouldn't have been able to figure that out."

I smiled brightly right back at him, and abruptly switched to a blank expression. I looked in front of me, seeing all the black rain, seeing all the death surround me. But I couldn't give up. I grabbed Ash's hand, and took him back to the shelter, where I found some extra bedding pillows, and canned food. I set up a base in the shelter, and motioned for him to lie down in a sleeping bag I set up next to mine.

He looked at me, and smiled. He sat down beside me, and went to sleep. I'm sure a little sleep would fix the wounds he got. If not, then I'd heal him up with some medicine I could find. I tossed and turned, and finally came to a still position, staring up at the ceiling in front of me. I wondered what good had I done today, this _horrible_ day. '_Why. Why now?' _I thought to myself. _'The boat. I still have it.'_ I thought. I looked over to my left, and saw my bright happy boat. '_I think that's the only happy thing I have left. Besides Ash…'_ I had no intention of thinking now. I only wanted to go to sleep… Forget about this day, just for a little…

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**(1): Search up Higurashi: Shions Laugh Japanese. Imagine that's how Dawn's laughing xD WARNING THE SCENE IS BLOODY **

**Meh, rough ending I know xC Well, over 3,000 words ^^ IMPROVEMENT! I wanted to write more, but it wouldn't squeeze into 1 chappie ._. Ahwell. Questions:**

**1. Did you like this chapter? Why?**

**2. Did you expect what happened would happen?**

**3. What do you think Dawn's going to do with the boat?**

**4. What do you want to see more?**

**5. Which story should I update next?**

**Thanks :3 BYEZ ~Zoha**


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